Remembering the Family History [Envisioning Day 5]

Aunt Jennie sharing stories of New Hope's past.

Aunt Jennie sharing stories of New Hope’s past.

The final day of Envisioning 2014 focused on New Hope as a family whose history portrays God’s hand throughout every step. Jennie Dangers  briefly shared New Hope’s history highlighting the call to remember the faithfulness of God. Philippians tells us that He who began a good work will see it to completion. We can rest in this knowledge that God already knows the solution. Aunt Jennie personalized a couple passages of Scripture to remind the New Hope family to give thanks for what God has done.

Deuteronomy 8 re-worked by Jennie Dangers:

REMEMBER how the Lord your God led you all the way in the bush these 27 years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.  He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with posho and beans- which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

When you have eaten and are satisfied… when the land has been cleared of the huge trees, ant hills, and thick bush and there are no more land mines, when your crops produce good food, when there is a maize mill- AND electricity or a generator- to mill your harvest, when you no longer have to walk a kilometer to get drinking, bathing, or washing water but have water in your cisterns and in the 3 boreholes on site and treated water in the tower, when the ministry has more than one vehicle- and there is petrol available in any town you happen to drive to, when there are things to buy not only in Kampala, but also Kiwoko and Kabubbu, and even at the shop near Hajji’s house, when you no longer have to crowd 80 students in 2 classes into one classroom, when you don’t have to walk to Luweero because there are boda bodas and taxis to take you wherever you want to go, when you have cell phones AND network, when UMEME is on and you have solar lights if UMEME is off, when you have internet and can communicate to those you love in far-off countries in seconds rather than in months —praise the Lord your God!!
BE CAREFUL THAT YOU DO NOT FORGET the Lord your God, failing to observe His commands…

OTHERWISE, when you eat and are satisfied, when you have nice classrooms, painted and plastered houses made of brick and that have electricity, when the name New Hope Uganda is known in many parts of the world, when Uganda is one of the main tourist destinations in Africa (instead of being one of the last places in Africa anyone wanted to go to!), when you have a clinic on site AND a good hospital up the road (instead of a doctor treating malaria and wounds and delivering babies on the open verandah of a house), when you have over 10 teams come a year and you have faithful and generous donors-  then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.

REMEMBER: HE led you through the thick and dreadful bush with its thorn bushes, venomous snakes, monkeys, and wild cats.

HE brought you water- through rain, 3 boreholes, a solar pump, and a water purification system!

HE gave you posho to eat- something your fathers had never known to humble you and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

You might say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this…. BUT REMEMBER the Lord your God, for it is HE who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant.

Do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness…. It is not because of your righteousness or integrity that you took possession of this land, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Envisioning 2014

The whole crew at 2014 Envisioning

In fact, it is not even for your sake, O New Hope family, that I have acted in the past, but for the sake of My holy name…and I will continue to vindicate the holiness of my great Name… and Kabubbu, Wakayamba, Kasana, Wabitunda, Katooke, Nakaseke, Kampala, Uganda, and the NATIONS will know that I am the Lord, when through you I hallow My Name before their eyes. (Ezekiel 36 and Matthew 6:9)